Bloom 'very disappointed' not to sign striker

Steve Bailey

Albion chairman Tony Bloom said he was very disappointed the club failed to sign a striker on deadline day in an open letter to supporters.

The Seagulls were close to landing Florin Andone and then Vincent Janssen yesterday but both deals fell through.

In a letter to Albion supporters, Bloom wrote:

Our first Premier League transfer window ended shortly before 1am this morning.

We have secured many excellent signings which have strengthened the squad in many areas. In doing so, we have invested many tens of millions of pounds and we have broken our own record transfer fee three times. However, in what turned out to be a very eventful final day, we failed to secure the additional striker which has left all of us feeling very disappointed.

Our recruitment team, led by Paul Winstanley, worked tirelessly throughout the summer - and indeed in the many months before - to identify targets, prepare the ground work for our transfers, and to put us in the best possible position to execute deals at the optimum time in the window. A far from easy task, and a far from exact science.

Transfer windows are highly complex and dynamic. They require considerable investments in time, resources, energy, judgement, and, of course, finances. We were short in none of these areas. Transfer windows also require patience and good fortune. We were patient from the outset but, in the end, fortune did not come our way.

As we have seen in our first three matches of the season, the Premier League represents a big step up from the Championship. Your support for the team - both home and away - will be vital.

During the remainder of the international break, we will be working hard to re-group and to start the process of preparing our team for our second home Premier League match when West Brom visit us at the Amex on 9 September. And, such is the nature of player recruitment, our work for the next transfer window continues without pause.